1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices used in examining human ambulation and more particularly to devices that help analyze and quantitatively evaluate human ambulation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In clinical applications, there is an ongoing need to analyze and evaluate human ambulation. Clinicians often use such information to evaluate patient health status and recuperation following treatment, such as, drug therapy, rehabilitation, and surgery.
In the prior art, human gait has been traditionally an observational procedure that qualitatively assesses a number of factors in gait but does not formulate a quantitative measure of gait. There has been a number of methods of measuring gait by videotaping and subsequently analyzing the movement of the person three- or two-dimensionally in what is called a kinematic analysis. This also does not provide an ambulation score or unitary value of locomotion.
Another approach to human gait analysis has employed the measurement of pressure gradients from the plantar surface of the feet. There are several instruments that provide this information, such as F-scan and the electrodynograph. These also do not provide a score or quantification of human ambulation performance.
Thus, the prior art lacks equipment to easily, quickly, and economically evaluate human ambulation, and methods to perform a quantitative analysis of human ambulation.